What is Staging


Staging is an important step in the Infiniti on-boarding process. It is the day you:

  • import your Offline Circulation data collected between the time you sent us your database backup and the day you start using Infiniti,
  • starting using Infiniti for library circulation (after the Offline Circulation data has been imported),
  • start checking your converted data for accuracy and completeness.
Note: School IT support are not required during staging.


Data conversion is as much at art as it is a science. Concord strives to ensure your data has been successfully converted from your Legacy Library Management System (LLMS) to Infiniti, but only a library manager who knows their library collection can confirm if ALL data has been successfully converted. Staging is the phase where the library managers check their converted data and advise our Conversion Team about any data anomalies or any missing data.


Some Suggestions For Checking Your Data In Staging


We do not know your data, we do not know how many conversions it has been through in the past, and we (and perhaps you) do not know the implication of past cataloguing rules and practices that were used to populate your LLMS before you became the library manager.


These realities mean it is possible that at least some of your converted data will have to be corrected by you after it has been converted to Infiniti. Fortunately our Conversion Team will work with you to make basic corrections to converted data, and Infiniti has a number of built-in tools to help you do this, especially when there are simple corrections to be made. Our Support Team also provides a post-conversion data correction and manipulation service at reasonable rates.


Staging gives you an opportunity to verify that you have not lost any records or record data during conversion. You need to ensure that we gave back to you the same set of records and the same volume of data that you gave us.


Below is a non-exhaustive list of post-conversion data checking guidelines intended to guide you while you are checking your converted data during staging. We don’t know your data as well as you do so ultimately only you can determine if your data is correct. Please make further checks as you feel necessary.


You don’t have to check every converted record but you should check a cross-sectional sample of records. For example check: books (fiction, non-fiction, and reference); resource boxes (pre-defined boxes of books); kits; DVDs; websites; catalogued digital videos; and other resources important to you. You may have to spend 6-12 hours checking your data.


An efficient way to check data is to have two computers side by side – one open into your LLMS and the other open into Infiniti to easily compare records. It is good practice to compare both ways, i.e., find records in your LLMS and compare them with the same records in Infiniti, find records in your Infiniti and compare them with the same records in LLMS. If you find data that is seemingly incorrect or missing from Infiniti, let us know but don't try to edit or add it. We can usually correct data conversion issues while in staging.


If you find records that are missing, incomplete or inaccurate make a note of identifiers like barcodes, ISBNs, titles, names, and the inconsistencies you are observing. Login to the Infiniti Community Portal, locate your staging ticket, and submit your findings.


Online Support


While logged into Infiniti you may need to access documentation from the Infiniti Community Portal. To ensure you can always access all current documentation, open your browser and log into Infiniti Community Portal using your email address and the password you set earlier when you confirmed your registration to this server. Refer to the Registration section in Infiniti On-boarding Process.


Access For Library Staff


If you have library staff to assist you to check your converted data, you will need to ensure they can access Infiniti. To grant access to library staff:

  1. Login to your Infiniti using your assigned Username and Password.
  2. Navigate to Settings> Users
  3. Search for a library staff member.
  4. Note the patron's UsernameNote: This is the patron's login ID. Over type to change/replace.
  5. Type the patron's password. Note: Password is case sensitive, minimum length is 8 characters, and can be any combination of alphabetic characters, numbers, and symbols.
  6. Check Staff Member if not already checked.
  7. From System Groups dropdown choose Librarian and Library Users from the options.
  8. Clickto register patron and save the profile.
  9. Repeat steps 3 to 8 for each library staff member.



Check and compare

In Infiniti

In your Legacy Library Management System (LLMS)

Bibliographic records:

Sample a cross section of at least six. Choose books, kits, resource boxes, CDs, DVDs, eBooks, AV media, websites, and other media in your library.

Click  on the left menu, enter a title, scan a bar code or scan an ISBN (if you have been recording ISBNs) and click theicon.

 

From the displayed results choose a resources and click the catalogueicon to open the bibliographic record of that resource to check:

·  title

·  author

·  call number

·  subjects

·  other bib data

Follow your normal path to locate the same bibliographic record you located in Infiniti and cross check the data. Check subject headings, abstracts, contents of resource boxes and kits.

Holdings records:

Compare single and multiple copies. If comparing URLs check the links.

Clicktab to display the details for books and check:

·  number of copies

·  site, e.g., Main Library, Junior Library

·  section, e.g., Fiction, Non-fiction

·  acquisition details – if converted

To check URLs click thetab and confirm the URL

Follow your normal path to locate the holdings data for same record.

Patron/User records:

Are all patrons present in their classes, form groups, staff, etc.

Clickon the left menu, chooseon the top menu, select Any academic level for User in:, click.

Follow your normal path to locate the patron records for the academic level or list another way and do the same search in Infiniti.

Resource boxes:

Check resource boxes for correct content.


 Refer to instructions above.
Follow your normal path to locate the resource boxes and their content and do the same search in Infiniti.
Circulation records:

If your circulation data was converted, check patron loan records.


Clickon the left menu, enter borrower barcode.

 

From the displayed results for that borrower check:

·  current loans

·  loan history


Follow your normal path to locate the borrower’s circulation record.

 

If you are planning to use the SCIS cataloguing service you need to contact SCIS and request they switch on your school’s Z39.50 SCIS account. You should also edit your school's SCIS profile to set it to MARC21 format. Contact SCIS for instructions and advice on these topics. If you are planning to use another cataloguing service, e.g., Library of Congress, British Library, WorldCat, et al, you need to contact those respective services and request connection details for their respective Z39.50 servers. Remember that Z39.50 cataloguing is done using the MARC21 format. 


After checking your data, and following corrections by our Conversion Team to any conversion issues you advised us about, you can prepare to move into production. It is possible that media types, sites and sections were accidentally duplicated in your LLMS and should be corrected. In some instances authority files are also inaccurate. We recommend you inspect and clean up this data after staging to provide an optimum experience for your patrons and Infiniti provides tools to assist you to do this. The following areas should be reviewed:

  • Check Media Type, Sites and Sections. Read more here...
  • After cleaning up sites and sections you can set your preferred circulation rules for discrete groups as you remove the interim migration rules used during staging. Read more here...
  • Check authority files. Read more here...


Note: This data should not be cleaned up and preferred circulation rights should not be set in staging.


Patron Profiles


It is mandatory that each active Infiniti patron has a basic user profile. The minimum student profile consists of; a unique username, password, first name, last name, barcode, year of graduation (cohort), and system group. The minimum teacher profile consists of; a unique username, password, first name, last name, barcode, and system group. 


In many LLMS some or all of this data is not present, especially if patrons have not been required to logon to the LLMS. Consequently, when patron records are initially converted from your LLMS to Infiniti, it is common for the conversion process to locate minimal patron data and no username. The conversion process will attempt to convert patron data located in your LLMS and will assign each patron a unique username if none was present in the backup. The username is critical because it allows you to align Infiniti patron profiles with student admin profiles and network accounts.


Depending on the data options available in your LLMS, their username in Infiniti (as a result of the conversion) may have been set to their patron barcode number, their admin id, their patron email address, their firstname.lastname, or a randomly generated unique identifier. If this is the case for your conversion, then you may want or need to change your patron usernames, updating them to another unique identifier, especially if your school plans to implement SSO or update patron records directly from your student admin system. You should contact your IT support to confirm your school's preferred username for each patron.


The first step in to undertake before importing student records or setting up SSO is to ensure your patrons' usernames match their network id and their student admin unique identifier. Please read this documentation to see how to realign usernames with student admin unique identifiers.



Align Infiniti Patrons for Single Sign On


To allow Infiniti access via Single Sign On (SSO), Infiniti patron usernames must be aligned to (be matched with) their school network login ID. If the Infiniti patron usernames do not currently match their school network ID (check with your IT support staff) ), an alignment can be undertaken at any time, including during the latter stages of staging or the early stages of production. The alignment is processed by preparing and importing a valid CSV Username Realignment file. Once prepared, submit the 2-column CSV file to Infiniti support via a support ticket.


When you tell us that all your data has been converted you will be ready to move to production and full use of Infiniti.